Luther's Return (Scanguards Vampires Book 10) Read Free

Isabelle, when she heard somebody call her name.
    “Katie? Got a minute?”
    She pivoted and saw Blake pop his head in the door.
    “You can’t come in here!” she chastised and rushed toward him.
    He immediately retreated. When she stepped outside into the corridor, he was waiting for her.
    “Apologies, but nobody heard me knock,” he said, grinning disarmingly.
    A decade ago Katie would have rolled her eyes and accused him of using any excuse to ogle the beautiful young girls in the dressing room. Not tonight. Blake had changed in more ways than one.
    He’d matured and grown into an utterly handsome man with short dark hair, the same blue eyes as his 4th great-grandmother Rose, and a toned body made of pure muscle. The family resemblance to Quinn and Rose, however, ended there. He looked older than his blond vampire forebears now. His ancestors had been turned into vampires in their twenties, while Blake had become a vampire at age thirty-two, twelve years earlier. Quinn had turned him at Blake’s insistence.
    “What is it?” Katie asked, looking up at Blake who dwarfed her.
    “I just wanted to go over security with you.”
    “But we’ve already done that. I really don’t have the time. We only have—”
    “It won’t even take a minute of your time, sweetheart,” he insisted, turning on his charm.
    “Sweetheart?” She laughed. There was nothing amorous going on between her and the tall vampire—they both knew that. “You must be desperate.”
    Blake chuckled, displaying his white teeth. “You know me too well.” He pulled a piece of paper from the inside of the trendy sports coat he’d paired with black slacks and sturdy boots. “Samson’s orders.”
    Involuntarily she had to smile. Even dressed in elegant eveningwear, Blake was always ready for war.
    “I have the feeling you enjoy being the head of Scanguards’ personal security detail far too much.”
    He smirked and looked around the corridor, making sure none of the stagehands who were arranging final details could overhear them. “Providing ‘round the clock security for thirteen hybrid teenagers is no walk in the park. And don’t even get me started on the parents.”
    Katie knew what he meant. Some parents could be overprotective of their offspring, and Samson was no exception when it came to his three children. Though he did have reason to be cautious. Scanguards had enemies.
    “Driving you nuts, are they?”
    Blake ran a hand through his hair. “You have no idea. And trust me, those kids have never been safer in their lives than since I took over their security twelve years ago.”
    “Was that why you wanted to be turned? So the kids couldn’t run roughshod over you?”
    Blake briefly glanced down the hall where a worker was carrying two chairs into the next room. “That, and the fact that I didn’t want to look older than my grandparents.”
    His serious expression belied the light tone of his voice.
    “Sorry I asked.”
    Blake blinked and gave a sigh. “Katie, I don’t mean to—”
    She lifted her hand. “You don’t have to explain yourself—”
    “I love these people,” Blake interrupted, motioning to the wall. Behind it was the stage and beyond that the audience waiting for the performance to start. “I love the Scanguards family. They’re my family, and I don’t want to leave them. Had I remained human, one day I would have had to. I can’t do that.”
    Katie put her hand on his forearm and squeezed.
    He met her eyes. “And if you tell any of them about what I just said, I’m going to suck the life out of you,” he warned.
    “Don’t wanna come across as a big softy, that it?”
    “Because I’m not.”
    “No, you’re not. And loving somebody doesn’t make you weak, it makes you strong.”
    “Well, let’s go over this.” Blake pointed to the piece of paper in his hand, clearly embarrassed. “I marked at which points in the play Isabelle is going to be on stage and when she’s supposed to be